In 1836 Israel Plummer built a store beside a boat basin and dock here—the mid-point of the canal journey between Worcester, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island. Retail products sold at Plummer's store included stove parts, tools and hardware, foods, plaster, fuels, and dry goods.
Plummer's Landing became an important commercial center that received manufactured goods from the cities and mill villages, and raw materials and agricultural products from the rural countryside. Goods shipped from this basin included textiles, lumber, wood shingles, cut stone, and machinery. After the Blackstone Canal closed in 1848, the enterprising Plummer opened a depot and shipped goods on the Providence and Worcester Railroad.
At the Plummer's Landing holding basin, canal boats loaded and unloaded goods; and waited a turn to pass through nearly Lock No. 26. The fieldstone walls and foundations of the landing are visible ahead, and the canal lock, constructed of granite cut from local quarries, still exists, serving as the abutment where Church Street crosses over the Canal.
[Illustration captions, from top to bottom, read]
· Blackstone Canal
· Plummer's Landing
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